Phosphorous

adj, noun

adj, noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Misspelling of phosphorus. alt-of, misspelling, proscribed, uncountable

    "As a former civilian resident of west Beirut, bombed with American-made phosphorous and cluster bombs by the Israelis, I am outraged by this."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to phosphorus. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Resembling phosphorus. not-comparable
  3. 3
    Of, relating to, or containing trivalent phosphorus. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    containing or characteristic of phosphorus wordnet

Example

More examples

"As a former civilian resident of west Beirut, bombed with American-made phosphorous and cluster bombs by the Israelis, I am outraged by this."

Etymology

From phosphorus + -ous.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.